Emmett

Catching up on the goings-on in Emmett's past few months...

Emmett's Auntie Ne and her boys were in town and stayed in a hotel nearby with a swimming pool. After going for a swim, we went back to her hotel room to bathe the kids and get them dressed. I pulled Emmett out of the tub and dried him off and then went to pull his clean clothes and diaper out of our bag. As I headed back to him, I watched him begin peeing right on the floor with a big grin on his face. "Stop! No!" I screamed. Emmett's face straightened, his body went rigid, and he stopped mid-stream. We all started laughing as I wrapped the diaper around his naked bum. Silly boy! Thanks for giving mommy more clean-up work, as usual.

One day in early summer, Emmett followed Liliana into the bathroom and once she had finished her business, he said, "I want potty." Surprised, but more than willing to acquiesce to his request, I stuck him on the toilet and he actually peed. He went a few more times over the next couple of days - asking to go when he saw big sister doing her thing. Then one of those times he was overshooting the pot, so I quickly reached in and aimed him down. He halted mid-stream, turned bright red in the face, and screamed bloody murder until I took him off the toilet. After that, Emmett wouldn't go near the toilet for a couple of months. Then out of the blue, he started telling David, "I want potty" again. We are still working on it, but since he has self-started the potty training interest, we are going with it!

For Thanksgiving, we took a trip to southern California to visit Great Grandpa and Grandma Jovet. On the way down, our plane hit some very bumpy turbulence. Emmett thought it was hysterical and laughed out loud every time the plane bounced, bumped, and shook. His laughter was so loud and contagious, that he got everyone around us cracking up too!

Upon returning from our Thanksgiving trip to California, Emmett demonstrated a new-found skill...He can climb out of his crib. Great (to be read with dripping sarcasm). Because of this new ability, we have begun putting Emmett to bed in the second twin bed in Liliana's room. Since we knew we wanted to eventually move Emmett into the room with Liliana, we set the bunk beds up as two singles in our new home. We have had a few successful nights where we put Emmett down, he falls asleep, and then Liliana falls asleep in the other bed without bothering her brother. Some of our attempts have ended up with Emmett waking up in the middle of the night, waking up his sister, and then both of them traipsing into my room at horrible hours. Several nights were completely unsuccessful to start with, because Emmett was excitedly playing around in the bedroom rather than falling asleep - requiring us to put him back in his crib so Liliana could get to bed on time. At any rate, things are coming along and we will keep trying. Liliana loves having Emmett in her room and is disappointed whenever he has to go back to his old room.

Our family attended a nice Christmas party earlier this month at our realtor's office. The place was jam-packed with people, food, and fun. When our number was called for a picture with Santa, I headed over with Liliana to stand in line while Emmett and David made their way after us. David came around the corner and I asked where Emmett was. "He's following right behind me," he responded, so I stepped inside the ladies room with Liliana to fix up her hair while David walked back around the corner. When we came out of the bathroom a moment later, my realtor was there and asked, "Did he find him?"
"Did who find whom?" I asked back.
"Emmett. David was looking for him," he responded.
In a bit of a panic, i started working my way through the crowd back the way we had come, asking people if they had seen a little boy in a black suit. Everyone was shaking their heads. Then I heard the elevator beep behind me and saw David step off with a teary-eyed Emmett in his arms. David said when he walked back around the corner to get Emmett, he was nowhere to be seen. David knew he loved buttons and guessed he had gone for a ride on the elevator, so he went up to the second floor (which is the top floor). Emmett was not there, so David went down to the parking level. There was Emmett right outside the elevator, crying in the parking garage. You can only imagine how freaked out I was at all the "what-ifs" that could have happened down in that open-to-the-outside parking garage. Apparently I pulled shenanigans almost identical to this when I was young, so if you ask my mother, I am getting my just desserts. I have said many prayers since that incident, thanking God that Emmett stayed put and was safe until David could get to him. Having children can be such a stressful thing at times! If only they weren't constantly finding ways to endanger themselves.

Love my little guy!